Quilty Causes-Knight’s Quilt Shop

In every issue of Quiltmaker we spotlight quilters who want to make a difference in their communities. In the Sept/Oct ’11 issue, I had the pleasure of getting to know Michelle Knight, owner of Knight’s Quilt Shop in Cape Neddick, Maine.

Michelle and her staff learned about the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital Pediatric Intensive Care Unit when two nurses came into Knight’s Quilt Shop to purchase fabric for a wall hanging for the hospital. They expressed a desire to make quilts for all of the children, but it was nearly impossible because over 400 children, from newborns to 18 years old, enter the hospital every year.

Delivering quilts

Michelle immediately volunteered her shop as a sponsor and and started spreading the word and making brochures to hand out. Quilters from far and wide answered the call and started making quilts for this great cause. Because Knight’s is located in a tourist area, many national and international quilters visit and take a brochure–often sending back a quilt for the hospital.

Quilts for Barbara Bush Children's Hospital

Since February 2006, when Knight’s became the only sponsor for the hospital, they have collected over 500 quilts. Their dream is to collect enough quilts for all of the children who enter the hospital. Every December, Michelle and her staff visit the hospital, loaded with quilts and toys, all thanks to the quilters who have joined in to give their time, energy and quilts for the children.

Barbara Bush Children's Hospital

Thanks Michelle, and all your staff, for volunteering for such a great quilty cause! If you would like to help, visit Knight’s Quilt Shop for more information.

Do you have a favorite quilty cause? Please leave us a comment and tell us all about it!

About Paula

I'm an Associate Editor at Quiltmaker in Golden, CO. I've been quilting for 18 years, including teaching, long arm quilting, designing, and stash building. I also love to read, run, stitch, play with my boston terrier and spend time with my family.

4 Responses to Quilty Causes-Knight’s Quilt Shop

What a marvelous way to introduce the quilting world to a hospital! I wish them well in their endeavor and if I ever have enough money, I’ll send them a quilt. Currently my “community quilts” are donated to my local guild where they are then distributed to various places.
Keep up the good work!

Terry Hodskins, a Wells Rotary Club member, launched the quilt project on behalf of Wells Rotary Club in 2001, naming the project WRAP-A-SMILE.The name recognizes the fact that a repair of a cleft lip enables a child to smile for the very first time. Since its inception it has grown fast. Every time there is publicity about Wrap-A-Smile more quilters begin stitching.
Quilters are a group of ladies (and sometimes guys too) that purchase or have fabric of all descriptions that they proceed to cut up and re-assemble into interesting patterns and designs, which, if given a cause, or any reason to make a quilt, they do what is needed to be done. To a quilter, being “Wrapped in a small disposal plastic sheet after surgery was not acceptable.

Over 16,000 small and colorful home-crafted quilts have passed through Terry Hodskins’ hands, on their way to children recovering from surgery in distant hospitals and clinics. Recently she shipped 90 quilts to Karaikal where surgeons, nurses and other volunteers will soon be making delicate repairs to lips and mouths of children with disfiguring birth defects. Each youngster coming out of surgery will be wrapped warmly in one of these donated quilts.
Wrap-A-Smile is entirely devoted to supporting the medical missions of Rotaplast International. That national organization, which began as a project of the Rotary Club of San Francisco, now send up to 15 missions a year to countries around the world, offering free surgery to repair cleft lips and cleft palates.

She has a list of requirements to make sure donated quilts are suitable for Third World conditions.

“We see some beautiful quilts,” she said, “and we turn to each other and ask “Can you imagine this being washed in a river?” Hodskins keeps her quilt quild (“my label ladies”) busy attaching labels to each quilt. Along with linking hearts, and the Rotary Wheel with the Wrap-A-Smile logo, a label goes right next to any attached by the quilter.
If you would like to take part or know someone who would, quilts should be baby/lap size, child friendly colors and 100% cotton. The smallest size 36 x 46 and larger size 40 x 60 and any size in between. We ask that they be machine quilted or hand tied, as they may very well be washed in rivers and are generally exposed to difficult conditions.
All inquires should be made to Terry Hodskins or to Bridget Burns. More information
about Rotaplast International can be found at http://www.rotaplast.org.

I invite you to visit the above website and click on Wrap-A-Smile. A very short vidio is there to tell the story of the Wells Maine Rotary Quilt Project.
Terry Hodskins, a Wells Rotary Club member, launched the quilt project on behalf of Wells Rotary Club in 2001, naming the project WRAP-A-SMILE.The name recognizes the fact that a repair of a cleft lip enables a child to smile for the very first time. Since its inception it has grown fast. Every time there is publicity about Wrap-A-Smile more quilters begin stitching.
Quilters are a group of ladies (and sometimes guys too) that purchase or have fabric of all descriptions that they proceed to cut up and re-assemble into interesting patterns and designs, which, if given a cause, or any reason to make a quilt, they do what is needed to be done. To a quilter, being “Wrapped in a small disposal plastic sheet after surgery was not acceptable.

Wrap-A-Smile has been published in Family Circle as recently as January 2004. There have been countless articles in the Biddeford, Maine Journal Tribune, as well, the Portland Press Herald, York County Coast Star and the Quilters’s Newsletter Magazine.

Over two thousand small and colorful home-crafted quilts have passed through Terry Hodskins’ hands, on their way to children recovering from surgery in distant hospitals and clinics. In January 2004, she shipped 90 quilts to Karaikal where surgeons, nurses and other volunteers will soon be making delicate repairs to lips and mouths of children with disfiguring birth defects. Each youngster coming out of surgery will be wrapped warmly in one of these donated quilts.

Wrap-A-Smile is entirely devoted to supporting the medical missions of Rotaplast International. That national organization, which began as a project of the Rotary Club of San Francisco, now send up to 15 missions a year to countries around the world, offering free surgery to repair cleft lips and cleft palates.

There is no question that Terry Hodskins’ organizational skills have been effective in linking the efforts of many quilters. For instance, she has hooked up members of an Internet quilting group, who stitch the front pattern, with quilters in Maine and Alaska who attach the batting and backing. She has a list of requirements to make sure donated quilts are suitable for Third World conditions.

The above group picture includes labelers, packers and Maine quilters who put the finishing touches on the tops of the quilts.

“We see some beautiful quilts,” she said, “and we turn to each other and ask “Can you imagine this being washed in a river?” Hodskins keeps the Quazy Quilters of Wells, Maine (“my label ladies”) busy attaching labels to each quilt. Along with linking hearts, the labels are eventually inscribed with an important bit of medical information – the date of the surgery.

If you would like to take part or know someone who would, quilts should be baby/lap size, child friendly colors and 100% cotton. The smallest size 36 x 46 and larger size 40 x 60 and any size in between. We ask that they be machine quilted or hand tied, as they may very well be washed in rivers and are generally exposed to difficult conditions.

All inquires should be made to Terry Hodskins or to Bridget Burns. More information
about Rotaplast International can be found at http://www.rotaplast.org.

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Wrap-A-Smile – History

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Terry Hodskins, a Wells Rotary Club member, launched the quilt project on behalf of Wells Rotary Club in 2001, naming the project WRAP-A-SMILE.The name recognizes the fact that a repair of a cleft lip enables a child to smile for the very first time. Since its inception it has grown fast. Every time there is publicity about Wrap-A-Smile more quilters begin stitching.

Quilters are a group of ladies (and sometimes guys too) that purchase or have fabric of all descriptions that they proceed to cut up and re-assemble into interesting patterns and designs, which, if given a cause, or any reason to make a quilt, they do what is needed to be done. To a quilter, being “Wrapped in a small disposal plastic sheet after surgery was not acceptable.

Wrap-A-Smile has been published in Family Circle as recently as January 2004. There have been countless articles in the Biddeford, Maine Journal Tribune, as well, the Portland Press Herald, York County Coast Star and the Quilters’s Newsletter Magazine.

Over two thousand small and colorful home-crafted quilts have passed through Terry Hodskins’ hands, on their way to children recovering from surgery in distant hospitals and clinics. In January 2004, she shipped 90 quilts to Karaikal where surgeons, nurses and other volunteers will soon be making delicate repairs to lips and mouths of children with disfiguring birth defects. Each youngster coming out of surgery will be wrapped warmly in one of these donated quilts.

Wrap-A-Smile is entirely devoted to supporting the medical missions of Rotaplast International. That national organization, which began as a project of the Rotary Club of San Francisco, now send up to 15 missions a year to countries around the world, offering free surgery to repair cleft lips and cleft palates.

There is no question that Terry Hodskins’ organizational skills have been effective in linking the efforts of many quilters. For instance, she has hooked up members of an Internet quilting group, who stitch the front pattern, with quilters in Maine and Alaska who attach the batting and backing. She has a list of requirements to make sure donated quilts are suitable for Third World conditions.

The above group picture includes labelers, packers and Maine quilters who put the finishing touches on the tops of the quilts.

“We see some beautiful quilts,” she said, “and we turn to each other and ask “Can you imagine this being washed in a river?” Hodskins keeps the Quazy Quilters of Wells, Maine (“my label ladies”) busy attaching labels to each quilt. Along with linking hearts, the labels are eventually inscribed with an important bit of medical information – the date of the surgery.

If you would like to take part or know someone who would, quilts should be baby/lap size, child friendly colors and 100% cotton. The smallest size 36 x 46 and larger size 40 x 60 and any size in between. We ask that they be machine quilted or hand tied, as they may very well be washed in rivers and are generally exposed to difficult conditions.

All inquires should be made to Terry Hodskins or to Bridget Burns. More information
about Rotaplast International can be found at http://www.rotaplast.org.